Psalm 34 Semantics

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(For more information, click "Phrase-level Legend" below.)

Phrase-level Legend

Visualization	Description
	The prepositional phrase is indicated by a solid green oval.
	The construct chain is indicated by a solid yellow oval.
	When the conjunction ו appears at the phrase-level (not clause-level), it is indicated by a solid light purple oval.
	The article is indicated by a solid blue oval.

v. 1

• "The preposition בְּ + infinitive construct often refers to events that provide the temporal frame of an event or events referred to in a subsequent sentence" (BHRG 39.6). This construction (בְּ + infinitive construct) is standard for the historical superscriptions in the Psalter (Pss. 3; 34; 51; 52; 54; 56; 57; 59; 60; 63; 142) and occurs in other poems outside the Psalter (e.g., Isa. 38:9).
• SDBH claims that the use of the noun טַעַם in Ps. 34:1 and 1 Sam. 21:24 does not mean "discernment"/"good sense" but rather "behavior" or "appearance." Other lexicons, however (BDB, HALOT, DCH; cf. NIDOTTE) would classify the use of טַעַם in Ps. 34:1 and 1 Sam. 21:24 alongside its use in other passages (1 Sam. 25:33; Ps. 119:66; Job 12:20; Prov. 11:22; 26:16) to mean "discernment" or "good sense." This meaning works well in this context, since the phrase here refers to the time when David "pretended to be insane" (NIV, CSB, NET), i.e., when he "changed his good sense." So Targum: מדעיה. "To change one's discernment" may be an idiom for "to act insane."

The clearest illustration of the meaning of this word in the sense of "discernment" is the story of Abigail, in which David says: וּבָר֥וּךְ טַעְמֵ֖ךְ וּבְרוּכָ֣ה אָ֑תְּ אֲשֶׁ֨ר כְּלִתִ֜נִי הַיֹּ֤ום הַזֶּה֙ מִבֹּ֣וא בְדָמִ֔ים וְהֹשֵׁ֥עַ יָדִ֖י לִֽי׃

The meaning of שנה (piel), then, may be similar to what we find in Prov. 31:5: וִֽ֝ישַׁנֶּה דִּ֣ין כָּל־בְּנֵי־עֹֽנִי ("to pervert the rights of the afflicted" [NRSV]). David perverted or distorted his discernment. The verb can also mean "to disguise" (1 Kings 14:2), such that we might read, "David disguised his discernment"

v. 2

• "To bless God = to declare God to be the source of the special power = to praise God" (HALOT)

v. 3

v. 4

v. 5

• The noun מְגֹורָה occurs elsewhere only in Prov. 10:24 and Isa. 66:4 (cf. the masculine form מָגוֹר which occurs several other times), and it refers not to "fear" or "terror" in the abstract, but to some "thing dreaded" (BDB), "object of dread, horror" (HALOT), "(object of) fear, dread (DCH).

The LXX reads מגורותי as τῶν παροικιῶν μου ("from my sojournings"), from the root גור ("to sojourn") instead of גור ("to dread"). This interpretation is understandable in light of the historical superscription (v. 1). It may be that David chose a relatively rare word for "fear" (מגורה) because it sounded like the noun for "sojourn" (מגור).

v. 6

• The prepositional phrase אֵלָ֣יו indicates the "goal of movement of a process... The landmark y may be the goal of an act of observation." Translations typically gloss this phrase as "look to" (e.g., NIV, NLT, ESV, NET, GNT), which, in English, is a phrasal verb that implies hope and expectation ("to look to someone [for something]"). The phrase הביט אל, however, does not seem to carry this nuance (cf. Ex. 3:6; 1 Kgs. 3:14; Isa. 51:2). "Look at" or "gaze at" may be a more accurate gloss.
• נָהָרוּ: The verb נהר occurs elsewhere only in Isa. 60:5 (and perhaps also in Jer. 31:12), but most lexicons and translations agree that it means "to be radiant (with joy)" (BDB, HALOT, DCH). Cf. LXX: φωτίσθητε; Targum: ואתנהרו. Other have argued that means "to flow" like a "river" (נָהָר) (Jerome: confluite).

v. 7

v. 8

• The construct chain מַלְאַךְ־יְהוָ֓ה implies that the angel/messenger has been sent by YHWH. The Peshitta apparently read מלאך as a collective: ܡܫܪܝܬܐ ܕܡܠܐ̈ܟܘܗܝ ܕܡܪܝܐ܂ ("a troop of YHWH's angels").
• The verb חנה is an "action by which an individual or group of people settles in a certain location for a limited period of time and often for a specific purpose." Here, the "specific purpose" is to guard those who fear him; the encampment is a military encampment. Cf. Zech. 9:8 - וְחָנִ֨יתִי לְבֵיתִ֤י מִצָּבָה֙ מֵעֹבֵ֣ר וּמִשָּׁ֔ב וְלֹֽא־יַעֲבֹ֧ר עֲלֵיהֶ֛ם עֹ֖וד נֹגֵ֑שׂ. So NLT: "For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him"; GNT: "His angel guards those who honor the LORD and rescues them from danger."

v. 9

• 

v. 10

v. 11

v. 12

• בָּנִים: "title used to address a person (male if in singular) who is regarded with some degree of affection, ◄ as if he were the speaker's child." "The sense is not precisely children, but pupils or students, the Hebrew word being the conventional form of address employed by the wise men (viz. teachers) toward the members of their class (cf. Prov. 4:1)."

v. 13

v. 14

v. 15

• 

v. 17*

v. 16*

v. 18

v. 19

v. 20

v. 21

v. 22

• תְּמוֹתֵת (cf. Jdg. 9:54; 1 Sam. 14:13; 17:51; 2 Sam. 1:9f, 16; Jer. 20:17 Ps. 109:16.) instead of the more normal hiphil (המית). The difference between the polel (מותת) and hiphil (המית) is not clear, though example of the polel in narrative may suggest that מותת means to "to make a full end of, deliver the death blow" (HALOT):
  • David killing (an already injured) Goliath with a sword (1 Sam. 17:51)
  • Abimelek's armor bearer killing (an already injured) Abimelek with a sword (Jdg. 9:54)
  • Amalekite killing (an already injured) Saul (with a sword?) (2 Sam. 1:9-10)
  • Jonathan's armor bearer killing those whom Jonathan has already injured (1 Sam. 14)

In these examples, the patient is already in the process of dying. Thus, מותת may be similar to the English expression "put him out of his misery" or, better, "to finish off." This explanation works also in Jer. 20:17 - "(Cursed is the one) who did not put me out of my misery / finish me off (when I came) out of the womb" - and Ps. 109:16 - "he pursued the poor and needy and broken-hearted person to put him out of his misery / to finish him off."

Thus, the idea in Ps. 34, is that "misfortune" (רעה) will plague the wicked, bring him to his knees, and, finally, deliver the death blow to him.

(The author may have also chosen this form because it has three tav's and is thus a fitting word for the tav verse.)

v. 23

• אשם: SDBH: "to bear the consequences for an unlawful deed for which one is held responsible"; HALOT: to pay, suffer for one’s guilt; BDB: be held guilty, bear punishment; see Milgrom.

Verbal Semantics

(For more information, click "Verbal Legend" below.)

Verbal Legend

Conjugations
qatal	yiqtol-jussive
wayyiqtol (following qatal)*	cohortative
yiqtol	participle
wayyiqtol (following yiqtol)*	wayyiqtol (following participle)*
weyiqtol	inf. construct
weqatal	inf. absolute
*Wayyiqtol is colored a darker version of the conjugation it follows.

Relative tense arrows
Relative tense arrows (placed within the appropriate 'Fut/Pres/Past' column) are color coded according to the conjugation of the verb. The arrows in the table below are colored according to the typical uses of the conjugations.
After/posterior/future	Imminent future	Simultaneous/right now	Recent past	Before/anterior/past
← ←	↤	↓↓↓	↦	→ →

Aspect
	Continuous	Habitual or iterative	Stative	Perfective
Encoded in words	⟲	⟲⟲⟲	⎯	•
Inferable from context	⟲	⟲⟲⟲	⎯	•

Reference point movement
Movement	No movement
⇐	⇍

Modality
indicative	purpose/result
jussive	necessity
imperative	possible
cohortative	probable
wish	ability
(past) conditional	interrogative, etc.

If an emendation or revocalization is preferred, that emendation or revocalization will be marked in the Hebrew text of all the visuals.

Emendations/Revocalizations legend
*Emended text*	Emended text, text in which the consonants differ from the consonants of the Masoretic text, is indicated by blue asterisks on either side of the emendation.
*Revocalized text*	Revocalized text, text in which only the vowels differ from the vowels of the Masoretic text, is indicated by purple asterisks on either side of the revocalization.

• v. 1. "The constructions of the infinitive with a preposition... are almost always continued in the further course of the narrative by means of the finite verb" (GKC 114r).
• v. 2. With the adverbials בְּכָל־עֵ֑ת ("at all times") and תָּ֝מִ֗יד ("continually" or "continuously") (cf. Prov. 5:19), the aspect of both situations is probably continuous in a hyperbolic sense (so BDB on תמיד). GNT: "I will always thank the LORD; I will never stop praising him."
• v. 3. LXX: ἀκουσάτωσαν ... καὶ εὐφρανθήτωσαν (imperatives). Jerome: audiant ... et laetentur (subjunctives)
• v. 5. This mini-narrative refers to past events named in the superscription (v. 1). The LXX (καὶ ἐπήκουσέν μου) and Jerome (et exaudivit me.) read the second qatal as a simple past tense (waw + qatal vs weqatal). It is not clear whether וענני should be analyzed as waw + qatal ("and he answered") or as weqatal ("and [as a result] he answered") (cf. JM 115). Kimhi claims that "when preceded by a verb in the Perfect the Waw with Perfect has merely copulative force, e.g., Isa. 41:4; Jer. 22:15" (section 21). Revell, however, by analyzing forms in which the distinction between weqatal and waw + qatal is phonologically encoded (i.e., 1cs and 2ms verbs), has shown that waw + qatal is used "in a rather restricted set of circumstances" (p. 279), i.e., (1) when the two verbs (qatal followed by waw + qatal) act as a semantic unit referring to the same action (e.g., Isa. 1:2), or (2) when the two verbs occur in synonymous or antithetical parallelism (e.g., Ezek. 17:24).
• v. 6. On the vocalization of these two verbs (imperative vs qatal), see The Text of Ps. 34:6.
• v. 7. The sequence of this mini-narrative is essentially the same as in v. 5: called out (=sought) --> heard (=answered) --> saved (=rescued).
• v. 8. Most English translations rightly render these verbs with present tense verbs: "Encamps... and delivers" (NIV, ESV, KJV, cf. NET, GNT). The predicative active participle usually has a continuous meaning ("is encamping... and is delivering"), and wayyiqtol usually continues the semantics of the previous clause (cf. Peshitta which has a participle [ܡܦܨܐ]). The second verb, however, seems to have an iterative meaning ("he delivers") rather than a continuous meaning ("he is delivering") (cf. Jerome: circumdat [present)... et eruet [future]). If the second verb has an iterative meaning and continues the semantics of the first verb, then the first verb must have an iterative meaning as well. See also פדה in v. 23 and perhaps also שמר in v. 21. Cf. BHRG 20.3.3, which says that "the participle may refer to habitual events" and JM 121b who list some examples of the participle with "frequentive aspect." The author probably used the participle instead of yiqtol because a yiqtol would not have fit the acrostic
• v. 11. The qatal verbs are probably past tense (cf. LXX: ἐπτώχευσαν καὶ ἐπείνασαν; Aquila and Quinta: ηπορηθησαν; Jerome: indiguerunt et esurierunt); the psalmist is reporting some past observation which has timeless implications (cf. Rogland 2013, 24ff). "Lions have been reduced to starvation, but those who turn to the LORD shall not lack any good" (JPS1985) >> "Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the LORD will lack no good thing" (NLT; cf. NET, GNT, NGÜ, GNB).
• v. 18. Most modern translations render the verbs in this verse as timeless (KJV, NIV, NLT, ESV, NET, GNT, CEV, JPS85, LUT, HFA, NGÜ, ELB, GNB, ZÜR), which might be a good functional equivalent. In Hebrew, however, the verbs are past tense forms (qatals), as the ancient translators recognized (LXX: ἐκέκραξαν ... εἰσήκουσεν ... ἐρρύσατο; Syriac: ܓܥܘ ... ܫܡܥ ... ܘܦܨܝ; Jerome: clamaverunt exaudivit liberavit). The sequence of past tense forms create a mini-narrative which has a proverbial character (cf. e.g., Prov. 11:2, 8). Proverbs are often past tense because they report some past experience or observation which has timeless implications (Rogland 2013, 24ff). Alternatively, David may be referring to the specific deliverance referred to in the superscription (v. 1): when in Philistine territory, he and his men called out for help, and YHWH saved them (cf. vv. 5-6). The general proverbial character of the second half of the psalm (vv. 12-23) supports the former option.
• v. 23. The predicative active participle usually encodes progressive-continuous semantics ("YHWH is redeeming"). The context, however, suggests an iterative interpretation: "YHWH redeems" (cf. KJV, ESV, NET, CEV, NEB). See notes on the participle in v. 8.

Bibliography

Craigie, Peter C. 2004. Psalms 1–50. WBC 19. Waco, TX: Word.

Milgrom, Jacob. 1991. Leviticus 1–16. New York: Doubleday.